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Dark Night of the Soul

We are powerless to end the “Dark Night of the Soul”. Teresa says, “grace is buried so deeply that the soul seems not to feel the smallest spark of any love for God”. No “earthly consolations” can bring us relief. We magnify the power sin has over our lives. Past joys of our relationship with God feel like a distant dream. Our soul fights back but “all the weapons with which it could defend itself (are) in the hands of the enemy”.

How long, Oh Lord? Will youforget me forever?How long will you hide your facefrom me?How long must I bear pain in mysoul,and have sorrow in my heart all daylong?
How long shall my enemy be exalted
over me? (Psalm 13)

Teresa says, we “must wait upon the mercy of God, Who suddenly, at the most unlooked-for hour, with a single word, or on some chance occasion, lifts the whole of this burden from the soul”. Then our soul will be “full of sunshine and far happier than it was before.”

I will sing to the Lord,because he has dealt bountifullywith me. (Psalm 13)

Remember, God can change your dark night with “a single word”.

*This post is based on material from The Interior Castle: Sixth Mansions: Chapter One (Teresa of Avila). Psalm 13 is from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. “Dark Night of the Soul” is a phrase from St. John of the Cross.